As I am sure the MAN management would be only too quick to point out, the cash pile isn't a bottomless pit! Be aware that they were threatened with removal of aerodrome licence by the CAA recently. This has lead to a complete re-vamp of certain taxi-ways. Not only that, the Health & Safety are also dishing out some pain at the moment.
Not that I am leaping to the defence of MAN, but there needs to be priorities placed on the cash. A leaking roof is nothing next to a crumbling taxi-way, even if both are a result of under investment over the years. One causes a few problems, the other shuts the airfield. Which would you like?
Having said that, I read in my local paper the other week about how much Geoff Muirhead earns, something in the 4 grand a week region. Perhaps he would like to donate some of this cash pile to a new terminal roof fund. Like most major business these days, this is at a time of the rank and file being squeezed harder and harder.
I agree that MAN could do with a big orange loco. Problem is that EZY are well entrenched at LPL. It would be more hassle than it is worth for them to move. LPL have invested a lot of money into the airport infrastructure in recent years, most of it based on EZY and FR continuing operations there. I imagine that if EZY said they were moving up the M56 there would be an oversized carrot dangled to persuade them to stay.
MAN needs more good quality long haul traffic. I remember seeing Quantas in here as a kid, are there not enough pax using this service from MAN to justify them coming back? It strikes me that MAN sits back and waits for the business to come and knock on the door. Customers are the blood of any company, without them you have no company. Perhaps they need to be more pro-active in gaining new business. And if they already do that, then perhaps they need to do it with a more public face, so that the name becomes more noticed on the international stage !!!